Improvement in water-elevators



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

J. B. MGMILLAN, OF NORTH VERNON, INDIANA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,401, dated May 5, 1863.

To a/ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, J. B. MGMILLAN, of North Vernon, Jennings county, State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in device for raising water from wells or cisters; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the drawing, making a part of this specification.

The drawing is a perspective view of the machine, showing the different parts at one View.

My apparatus consists of a curb, windlass, rope, at chain or belting, bucket, returnspout or platform, brake, &c. Around the windlass are collars for the purpose of holding the rope in its place asit winds around the windlass in raising the bucket. The collar F has its flange notched at its periphery like a ratchet-wheel, in which the catch E plays for the, purpose of stopping and holding the windlass at any time should the person drawing water let go the crank. Connected with the catch E is the brake D. They are bolted to the cross-piece at the top of the curb and are so connected that when you bear down on the brake-handle the catch E rises clear from the ratchet-collar, and the lower end ofthe brake is raised up under the windlass and rubs against the shoulder of the collar, thereby causing the bucket to descend slow or fast in proportion as you bear down on the brakehandle. This arrangement greatly increases the speed of raising water, because it obviates the old slow process of turning the crank backward to lower the bucket, but simply bearing down on the brake handle raises the catch and applies the brake. When the bucket reaches the water, it instantly lls through the valve in its bottom. You then take hold ofthe crank to the windlass and turn it. This causos the bucket to ascend as the rope winds around the windlass. Instead of rope, two or three feet next the bucket, I use belting or a iiat chain to turn the bucket around, so that one of its two sides (to which are fastened knobs) will strike the tipping-bail which is fastened to the front side of the curb at its top edge. The knob of the bucket as it ascends strikes this tipping-bail, causing the bucket to tip over the top edge of the curb and discharge its water outside into the vessel sitting on the return-spout or platform G to receive it. The platform G inclines back toward the curb into the well again. The platforrnis some twelve inches above the bottom of the cuib and can be kept perfectly clean, so that water passing back through it into the well is nice and clean. The back part of the curb is two inches shorter than the front. This causes the curb to lean back so that the bucket when at the bottom of the well-curb hangs in the center, but as it reaches the top it strikes the front at the tipping-bail. By tipping the bucket over the top edge of the curb I decrease the size and expense of the curb.

By using the return-platform G, I avoid mud and water in summer and ice in winter about the well. I also save all the waste water, which at times is desirable. Y

By using the brake D, and connecting it with the catch E, I increase the speed and decrease the labor of raising water.

Having thus fully described my apparatus, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, 1s-

'lhe combination and arrangement of the ratchet-collar F, compound pawl and brake E D, tipping-hook L, tipping-bail B, and returnspout G, all substantially as shown and described.

J. B. MGMILLAN.

Witnesses:

J AMES A. DAvrs, J. D. HoDsHIRE, J. D. STOTT. 

